In the autumn of 1504 Michelangelo was given the commission to paint a battle scene for the Palazzo della Signoria as a companion piece to Leonardo's Battle of Anghiari. This grand project came to nothing: the cartoon was finished - at least in part - by February 1505, but the urgent summons from Pope Julius II prevented Michelangelo from continuing with the work, for which only some drawings survived.

The drafts for the Battle of Cascina wall fresco, for which Michelangelo progressed only as far as the cartoon (no longer extant), mark a highlight in his early graphic works. Contemporaries admired the complexity of the bathing soldiers' movements, the unheard-of degree of foreshortening, the monumentality of the figures, and the anatomical correctness of the bodies. The studies for the composition are indicative of a stylistic change: while earlier figures were primarily seen in frontal view, these figures are depicted in many and diverse rotational movements as they explore the space around them in every direction. In order to underscore this aspect, the artist began using a different, more suitable drawing material, the black chalk.